


Tired

by TourmalineQueen



Category: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Genre: Ezio still doesn't get it, Gen, M/M, comment-fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 14:16:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1651631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TourmalineQueen/pseuds/TourmalineQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>written for the Comment-fic prompt:<br/>any, any, Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. (Albert Camus)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tired

*-*

"Leonardo!" Ezio threw his arms wide for his friend's embrace.

"Ezio. So good to see you," Leonardo said softly.

"Is anything the matter, _amico_? What brings you to _Isola Tiburina_?" Ezio grinned, drawing the artist into the gallery.

Leonardo shook his head. "Nothing important, _amico mio_ , I simply... I am just... I tire of pretending for my clients."

"Pretending?" Ezio frowned. "How do you mean. I have not seen you pretend. Have I?"

Leonardo shook his head and chuckled. "You and I, Ezio, we do not pretend to one another. And for that I am eternally grateful. But Salaì is young and reckless, and Roma... Roma is nothing like Firenze, when it comes to men like us."

Ezio sat on a cushioned bench and drew Leonardo down with him. "I am sorry, my friend, but I don't understand."

Leonardo gave him an exasperated look. "There is a reason the Germans call men like us _Florizzers_ , Ezio. The powers that be in Firenze tend to look the other way - unless there is a profit to be made from publicly shaming us."

"Us?" Ezio looked truly confused. 

"Yes, Ezio. Us. Men who prefer other men. And here, now, my clients keep trying to foist their daughters upon me, and I must tread a careful line so that the poor girl feels she has my attention but is not encouraged in a flirtation. For I would hate for any young lady to be hurt by my ... inability to be attracted to her. And yet, if my clients were to suspect that I _am_ a ... _Florizzer_ ... then my career as an artist - perhaps even my very life - would be at an end. And Ezio, sometimes, sometimes it is exhausting, all this pretending, all the calculation." Leonardo leant his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

"And Salaì..." Ezio prompted.

"Ah, my Gian Giacamo is utterly fearless when it comes to such matters. I suspect that even were he taken to court he would proposition the judge," Leonardo chuckled softly, smiling fondly.

And Ezio remembered something from early in 1476, the memory of which had been blotted out by the deaths of his family.

"You were taken to court, weren't you? The... Saltarelli case?"

"I was, yes." Leonardo said, feeling suddenly tense. "I had trusted the wrong people with the secret of my... base nature."

Ezio thought hard for a long minute. Finally he met Leonardo's eyes. "Why did you trust me?"

Leonardo shrugged. "It is much easier to trust than not to trust. Takes less effort. Besides, you and I... we had our fun, did we not?"

"We did," Ezio nodded, smiling, "and I am glad. It would be so much worse to have lived my life without loving you."

*-*

**Author's Note:**

>  **A/N:** It is my headcanon that Ezio is completely bisexual and has no idea that some people are either heterosexual or homosexual. I think Leo understands this and wishes Ezio was one or the other. (Good thing he has Salaì!)


End file.
